Deadly floods.
"The worst in the country's history", in the words of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Within months, Pakistan became the scene of a devastating monsoon.
If this is a usual climatic phenomenon for the region, the one the country is currently experiencing has already killed nearly 1,162 people and disrupted the lives of nearly 33 million people, or one in seven inhabitants according to the Authority. Pakistan National Disaster Management (NDMA).
Images seen from the sky allow us to illustrate the advance of the floods, and to measure the devastation.
In the two most affected provinces, Balochistan and Sind, the rains were more than four times higher than the average of the last thirty years.
Better known for being an arid zone, Balochistan, in the southwest of Pakistan, is now under water.
The town of Dera Murad Jamali, in one of the regions most affected by the monsoons, Balochistan between August 4 and August 28.
LP/DATA Victor Alexandre
The floods have washed away villages and crops, and soldiers and relief workers are still trying to provide needed aid to displaced people taking refuge in the town of Dera Murad Jamali.
The NGO Doctors Without Borders, which is there, said on its Twitter account: “At Dera Murad Jamali, we are helping displaced people with mobile clinics (…) We are closely monitoring the situation in Balochistan and Sindh.
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A few hundred kilometers away, the province of Sind, in the south of the country, comes down to a vast ocean, where land and houses have been ravaged.
The country's main river, the Indus, fed by rivers from the north, is threatening to burst its banks.
The town of Bhan Syedabad, near Lake Manchar, has been completely flooded for weeks.
As the English-language Pakistani media The Dawn indicates, “the water has invaded the houses of the city of Bhan, now immersed in mud.
Many residents have complained about the lack of help from the government.
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The city of Bhan, in the center of Sind province, between August 11 and August 29.
LP/DATA Victor Alexandre
If nearly a third of Pakistan is flooded, it is still difficult to estimate the extent of the damage, as long as the water has not yet evaporated.
The country received twice as much rainfall as usual, according to local meteorological services.
The accelerated melting of glaciers has overflowed the rivers that cross the country, such as the Indus.
The town of Nowshera also suffered from the monsoons.
This city is located in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the north of the country.
An area that has many rivers and is criss-crossed by steep mountains and valleys.
As can be seen in this visualization, between August 6 and August 28, the Kabul, the river that crosses the city of Nowshera, completely overflowed its bed, and the water sometimes reached up to two meters at certain places.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the waters reached the town of Nowshera, as seen between August 6 and August 28.
LP/DATA Victor Alexandre
As Secunder Kermani, BBC Pakistan correspondent, reports, "Monsoons come every year but don't have such an impact, and climate change is known to worsen weather patterns, which are becoming more and more recurring.
Over the years, Pakistan will be confronted more and more with such events.
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In Qambar, in the Swat Valley, unprecedented rains turned rivers into destructive torrents that wiped out roads and bridges, trapping residents and tourists.
The city of Qambar, in the Sindh region, between August 4 and August 29.
LP/DATA Victor Alexandre
According to AFP, in this tourist region in the foothills of the Himalayas, army and government helicopters have already come to the aid of hundreds of people, some of whom were in urgent need of medical treatment.
21 deaths have been recorded so far.
Most of these people died when their houses collapsed, but some were also swept away by the waves.
